Possibililty of year-long delay for future members

The EU will be able to delay Bulgaria's and Romania’s memberships of the Union for a year, under a new safeguard clause now being proposed.

The so-called safeguard clause gives the EU the possibility of delaying entry for a year, if commitments made by the countries during negotiations, are not met.

During a series of meetings between the three sides yesterday (Tuesday 15 June) in Luxembourg it was confirmed that the two countries would have a tougher monitoring system prior to a...